Bibliography

Date first published	8 Jan 1996
ISBN Number	0 00 649666 0
Page Count	419 p/b
h/b= hardback : p/b= paperback

Storyline

It is late summer 1862, and the Confederacy is at last invading the United States of America. Nathaniel Starbuck, the northern preacher's son who fights for the rebel South, is given command of a punishment battalion, a despised unit of shirkers and cowards.

His enemies expect the appointment to be his downfall. to prove them wrong, Starbuck must lead the ramshackle unit against the northern garrison at Harper's ferry and then across the frontier to the bank of the Antietam Creek. There he will fight in what will prove to be the bloodiest battle of the Civil War.

Review

This is the last in the series, and the best of the books. It is in very many ways true Cornwell, and very reminiscent of Sharpe (Sharpe's Battle), who is also given charge of a disreputable unit which he has to turn around, and make ready for battle.

The book is slightly more pacier than some of the stories and has less of the religious overtones which drenched some of the previous stories. However the battle scenes never really get going, and unusually for Cornwell I found them rather a slog. Whether it is the writing, or whether he has described the battles as they actually happened it all seemed rather ponderous.

This novel also marks a change in my view of the main characters. i had started to warm to Colonel Swynyard, in the previous novel, and it is here in the fourth novel that I have warmed slightly to Starbuck himself. Whether it is because he has lost his holier than thou attitude, or is more human, because of his increasing fear of battle I'm not sure. Perhaps the way he has been written is more sympathetic. It could almost do with another novel to see whether the trend continues.

Starbucks battle with an untested regiment, and surly officers is perhaps the best part of the book, after all he takes the regiment from officers who are quite contented to see out the war training. Starbuck also gets a new companion in the shape of Lieutenant Potter, an inveterate alcoholic, but who manages to bring some humour to the book. I wonder whether this was an attempt to refocus the books an reawaken the. Whatever it does bring a lighter and slightly irreverent light to the proceedings, especially as the actual battle is very grim.

Starbuck also gets a new enemy in the Shape of Sergeant Case, who in the brief introduction is very reminiscent of the Great Sergeant Hakeswill. This would have been a great character to have appeared in the first novel, and proved as implacable as Hakeswill, who thought Sharpe and inferior officer.

To summarise, the most enjoyable of the Starbuck novels, let down by the battle itself. It is also obvious that another book could have followed as a number of loose ends were not properly tied up.

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